Don Touhig: I am announcing today that I have approved significant additional resources for the Ministry of Defence medal office in order that it may further improve the delivery of existing medals and reduce the existing backlog of applications for historic medals.
	When the Ministry of Defence medal office was formed last February there were some 50,000 medal applications of all kinds awaiting action. This total has been reduced to 24,000 against a background of an enormous and unprecedented demand for medals arising from current operations such as Iraq and for historic campaigns such as Suez and World War II. There are currently some 9,000 World War II medal applications outstanding, with a further 780 applications on average a month.
	The 60th anniversary celebrations to mark the end of World War II have led to a resurgence of interest in historic medals. In particular, applications received from second and subsequent generations, claiming on strength of their next of kin status, have increased significantly, and this has resulted in an average application taking up to 14 months to process because of the onerous nature of the research of historic files involved.
	I have therefore decided to re-prioritise applications to give precedence to veterans and spouses ahead of second and subsequent generation applications. I understand that for some it may result in a slightly longer wait initially. However, in order to ensure both veterans and spouses receive the medals to which they are entitled, we must also consider their age, and this means they should not have to wait any longer than is absolutely necessary.
	In addition I have directed that the team processing World War II medal applications should be expanded by an additional 21 staff—the maximum we can train in this specialist task without total diversion of our current experts. Six of these posts have already been filled and farther recruitment action is already underway. With successful recruitment, I expect the backlog of applications for veterans and spouses to be cleared by the end of July 2006, and later generation applications by the end of October 2006.
	Thereafter, I would expect to see all new applications for historic medals being processed within four months of receipt of the application.

Patricia Hewitt: Further to my statement on 1 December 2005, Official Report, column 37WS, I am today publishing a report showing the action that my Department is taking to achieve financial turnaround in the national health service. The report has been placed in the Library.
	On 1 December I published unaudited in-year financial forecasts for each NHS trust, primary care trust and strategic health authority. Those figures showed that half way through the financial year NHS bodies were forecasting a net deficit by year-end of around £620 million.
	Today Mr. Richard Douglas, finance director at the Department of Health, has produced a report on the organisations that are currently overspending and the conditions required to deliver a sustainable financial position for all organisations.
	The majority of NHS organisations are successfully managing their finances, delivering balance or better, as well as cutting waiting times and generally improving services. A minority of organisations are overspending by significant amounts.
	The focus is on the organisations with the largest financial challenges and the Department and the NHS are employing turnaround techniques that are more widely used in the private sector. These focus on delivering organisational turnaround covering both finance and patient care. We will never compromise patient care.
	Initial analysis, supported by KPMG, of the 62 organisations with the largest financial problems suggests that 18 require urgent intervention. Where this is not already being provided it is being commissioned centrally. Although turnaround will not be achieved overnight, in most cases it will be delivered by getting the basic systems and controls in place and implementing known good practice, not through any single action. The Department also needs to provide the right focus on sustainable financial health across the NHS through the way it manages the system and the incentives offered in 2006–07.